The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - A White Death
by boshmi
Summary: Vampires, rising in Skyrim. The World Eater's return. Civil war. The Last Dragonborn. Skyrim has become a warzone, torn apart by strife and unrest. Yet deep in it's belly, an ancient beast slumbers on, undisturbed by the struggles of the land above. Until now. *I do not own Skyrim or TES, those rights are Bethesda's*
1. Prolouge

**This is my first Skyrim story and first real story ever so if you by some miracle actually enjoy it please do leave a comment. Or don't that's up to you I don't control you in any sense of the word. I would like this to eventually be relatively long but I'll probably get bored about halfway through. Maybe lemons, will decide later.**

Kokura held the torch higher, eager to press on. Hours they'd been trekking through this dwemer ruin, and for hours they'd found nothing. The stories of adventure, untold riches and valiant struggles seemed to lose their charm as the light from her torch slowly became the only thing left to see.

"We should go." Feya whispered. "There's nothing here but danger."

Kokura set her mouth in a straight line and turned on her reptilian partner, black hair whipping around in an aggressive display. She was taller than the younger Argonian, commanding the respect she so often abused to warp the decision making of her companion. "Where there's danger, there is reward, but only those brave enough to get it." She said, patronizing the younger girl immensely. "If you stick with me, I'll make you a rich lizard. Run off if you want. More treasures for me."

Feya dropped her gaze to the floor. Ashamed by her cowardice she murmured an apology. The duo continued in silence, nothing but their footfalls on the mossy ground to intersperse the calm. As the darkness closed in closer and closer around the two, even Kokura's braggartly self began to wonder if this was too much for them. She stopped suddenly, causing Feya to run into her behind. She turned on the Argonian, anger in her eyes.  
"Watch where you're going, you stupid lizard." She spat, words dripping with malice. The torch, forgotten, dropped to the ground, extinguished almost instantly by the moisture covering the floor, the hiss of steam marking the end to the short life of the flame.

"Now look what you've done!" Kokura continued, slapping Feya hard. All light had disappeared from the dungeon, and nothing but blackness remained.

"I'm sorry ma'am, oh ever so sorry, I'll light mine, please." Feya forced out, trying to stop the sobs that came into her voice as the sting of a slap echoed across her face. She was very young, but twelve this year. Memories of her family drifted back as she began to wonder; _what am I doing here?_  
They'd been a poor family, migrants from black marsh working the land to afford a meager living. Feya had been sold into the slave market of Riften, doomed to a life of pleasuring rich Nords with lizard fetishes.  
She'd been saved by Kokura, a young adventurer with fire in her heart and in her voice, looking for someone to carry all her gains from dungeons. It was a lucky fate by comparison.

With shaking hands, Feya scraped her own torch to life, handing it to Kokura who grabbed it viciously, snarling at the young girl's red eyes before spitting at her feet. The cavern came to life, the flickering flames bouncing off the walls as all that was hidden came to be seen. Kokura looked down at Feya, the younger lizard staring shock forward.

"What is it you useless lizard?" She murmured, beofre turning around to see what had so spooked her companion. Kokura's eyes went wide.  
Then she screamed.  
All around them skeletal figures drew themselves from iron coffins, bony bodies scraping aginst the sides as their rotting flesh dropped from the bodies. The stench was so overpowering Feya began to dry-heave but managed to keep herself under control long enough to keep screaming as the turned and ran back the way she'd come, tiny legs pounding the earth as she ran faster and faster through the tunnels, all the while screaming her head off.

 _I don't want to die I don't want to die I don't want to die I don't want to die_

Over and over in her head until she realized she could no longer hear the clang of sword on bone which had so echoed from the cavern just moments ago. She slowed to a walk, body heaving with fear and tears. She stumbled, coming to a crawl, breathing heavy. Her hands gripped the mossy ground, the moisture soaking into her scales, breath coming ragged, and she retched.

She lay for moments that could have been days, before slowly struggling to her feet, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand and considering the situation. Leaning against a rock wall to support her frail self, she realized that she no longer had her backpack, or torch, or Kokura. She was a child, alone in the dark. This was a nightmare. Sliding down the wall slowly, the depth of her predicament finally sinking in, she buried her face in her arms and began to sob, tears rolling down her face as her body shook with the fear that she felt.

"I just want to go home..." She whimpered, through sobs. "I just want my Mum."

A rattling noise sounded, the sound of a stone being shifted. She stood quickly, tensing to run. "Kokura?" She called. "Is that you?" The rattling intensified, whatever it was coming closer. Feya's hart began to rise, her breath becoming panicky once more. "Please don't hurt me, I'm just a kid, please, please..."

Just a meter away a strange blue glow permeated the darkness, edging ever closer.  
She turned, and gazed straight into the face of a skeleton, standing twice the height of a normal man, and covered in vicious-looking armour.  
She froze, too scared to scream, too scared to move.  
She watched the jaws of the creature move. It was trying to say something.

"Fus..." It rasped. "RO DAH!"

Before she knew it, Feya was flying backward, propelled by an invisible force. She hit the wall with a thud, her clothes catching on something sharp and dwemer in the wall, and she heard a strange ka-chunk as a mechanism moved behind her. Suddenly she was falling, her mouth open in a silent scream as the darkness closed in around her.  
With a jarring halt, she hit the floor,  
unconscious.


	2. Awakening

Wings spread wide, the black dragon orbited a village, laughing internally as he watched the people scatter for cover from this threat. He threw back his head and emitted a mighty roar that sent the sheep running for cover. Landing in the center of the town, he destroyed a longhouse with one sweep of his mighty tail, before turning for a villager that had been foolhardy enough to run by his watchful head. He snapped down, decapitating the villager in a single bite, and relished the taste of mortal flesh...

Stone floor hard against his scales, Kruziknahlotah stirred his head. Angered by the disturbance form his dream. It had been many a millennium since he had seen the sky of Nirn, felt the gentle rush of the breeze upon his scales, since he had been free.  
Indeed, it had been many millennium since he had last seen the mortals of Nirn. Or even his own kind.

Exhaling, his frame shuddering as the air was released from his mighty body. The chains which held him had long since dug deep into his skin, warping the flesh and scarring him raw. His flesh was torn with the spikes on the dwemer metal, one wing torn and waxy, while the other thinned more everyday. His scales, once royal and black, were now bleached white from lack of sunlight. A shadow of his former self, nothing but skin and bones to remember the mighty creature he once was. Yet something had changed, he could feel it in the air, smell the mortals that roamed his halls.  
And with mortals came hope.  
Still a good way off. He reminded himself. Best not get too exited. For now though, he would wait.

Kokura, for possibly the first time in her life, was frightened. That stupid lizard twerp had ruined this. The fight was going just fine until she decided to nick off, distracting Kokura and making her drop the torch. Still, in the dark she fought until she was pushed by something unseen, and fell unconscious. That's how she ended up here. Or at least she thought so.

Stirring, she dragged herself upright, head beginning to whirl with the movement. The ground moved as she did so, a clattering of bones followed by a sticky splash. She gave a short cry of disgust, withdrawing her hands.

 _Blood._

She thought, smelling the sticky substance coating her hands.

"Lizard!" She called. "Feya! Whatever your name is, where are you you hopeless beast?" Even in her moments of fear she would not let her arrogance pass. "If you're playing a game, stop or I'll cut you down." She waited for a whimpering reply but heard nothing but a steady trickle of something unseen. She took in her surroundings, feeling along the wall behind her to find for an exit. She was in a corridor, the back of which seemed to have closed over. Ancient dwemer bricks made up the walls, their shiny properties illuminating the room slightly.

 _Wait... light!_

She suddenly realized. For there to be reflection there must be light. It took all of her willpower not to whoop with joy as the turned towards the open end of the passage, seeing the slight glow of light cast by something down there. She began to run down the corridor, footsteps splashing as she made her way through more of what she assumed to be blood. She ignored this, too exited by her discovery to even fear what the blood may have come from.

About two hundred meters down, the corridor suddenly widened and the source of the light was revealed. Above her head she saw a faint crack in the dome of a ceiling, casting a faint glow over everything in the huge room. It looked like it had been made to hold hundreds of people, the walls decorated with elaborate chalices and beautiful paintings. The far side of the room was encased in shadow but what stood out more to her was the small lump to her right, slumped at the foot of what appeared to be a dwemer throne. A scaly lump, to be more precise.

Fury rising, she strode over to the lump, pulling her sword from it's sheath as she did so.

"Kokura! Ma'am, I'm so happy you..." Feya's words were cut off as Kokura's sword was brought down across her face, gashing it open and cutting out her eye. Blood sprayed from the young Argonian's face, she raised her hands to clutch at her now empty eye socket, the gory lump now rolling around on the floor. She screamed, her body wracked by pain and fear. "Please!" She begged. "Please ma'am please..."

Her cries fell on deaf ears as more and more blood leaked from between her fingers, coating the ground. Kokura picked up the lump of gore that was once Feya's eye and crushed it in her hand. She began to beat the child with her fists, sweat-stained hair flapping around her head as she pounded against the child harder and harder, various cracks and crunches coming from Feya's frail, broken body. "Don't... fuck... with... me..." Kokura grunted out as she beat the child.

Breathing hard, she drew herself away from the youngster, her knuckles stained with Argonian blood.  
She spat on Feya, grunting with disproval at the broken body that lay before her, ever so often emitting a whimper as the life slowly drained from her young body. "Serves you right you filthy brat. Think you could get away with sabotaging my expedition?" She gave Feya's limp form a light kick.

Now that she'd dealt with that disgusting little whelp, it was time to turn her attention to finding her way out of here. Blood coated the floor, glistening in the light cast by the crack in the ceiling.  
Distractedly, Kokura walked over to one of the cavern's walls, beginning to examine it for a way out. Checking each hieroglyph in turn, yet not really understanding what they meant, she only got more and more infuriated. Throwing up her hands, she hit the wall in frustration.  
"Stupid Dwemer with their own little contraptions..." She murmured under her breath.  
Silence passed over the cavern suddenly, the eerie blackness of the far side seeming to permeate Kokura's thoughts.

"Indeed, the Dwemer are fools, so foolish in fact as to not even preserve their race." Thundered a deep voice.  
Kokura whirled on her heel, drawing her sword as she attempted to find the voice's source. "Show yourself." She commanded. "I warn you, I'm armed."  
The voice gave a low chuckle. "I suppose that makes two of us."

Kokura's eyes widened in shock as the shadows in the far side began to move, echoes of something scraping on stone in the darkness. The darkness flickered, as a huge shape drew itself into the light, first a gnarled and leathery wing, then a head, reptilian and lined with cracked and vicious-looking teeth, then finally the body, long and scaly, stretched over long-unused bones. There was no mistaking it. This was a dragon. The likes of which Kokura had never seen before. Of course she knew of their return, everyone across the province did. The Dragonborn was out fighting the world-eater as they spoke, but Kokura herself never expected to see one, and least of all down here.  
Kokura readied her sword, preparing for a fight. "Back, beast. I'm not afraid of you."  
The dragon chuckled once more, leathery jaw twisting into a grim smile. "Ah, if only, mortal. I have no wish to harm you. Even if I did, do you think I would be able?"  
Kokura cast her gaze over the dragon's chest for the first time, noting the rusted iron harness, trailing chains which lead to an unseen anchor in the far side of the room. The chains and locks were barbed with wire, the vicious points digging into the white, almost transparent skin of the great beast, and in many of them infection had begun to grow.

Kokura smirked. "Alright then. Looks like I got me a dragon head to take home."  
Kruziknahlotah met her smile with equal malice. "Make one move, mortal and I will strike you down in a heartbeat." He rasped, lowering his head to her level and baring his fangs.  
Kokura's bravado began to melt. She sheathed her sword.  
"Much better." Crooned Kruzikahlotah. "Now, I think we can work together for the benefit of both of us. Don't you?" He queried, cocking his head to one side. "You need to escape, I need to escape, our goals are the same."  
"If you think for one moment I'd let you free, lizard..." Kokura spat.  
The dragon withdrew his gaze. "I see. Well, I suppose I could persuade you eventually but right now I really can't be bothered. Besides, after your display with the child over there I don't really feel like being nice to you at all."  
Kokura barley had time to think of a response before the beast reared back it's head and opened it's jaws. "GOL... HAH DOV" The great voice boomed, echoing through her mind with power, as the words forced their way into her head, fogging it up. Within seconds, her eyes had glazed over.

Kruziknahlotah smiled. "Good mortal, cross the room and pull that lever there."  
Obediently, Kokura turned and walked towards the lever, pushing down the rusted thing until it finally clicked. Some of the chains began to slacken.  
"Well done." The dragon continued. "Now pull both those chains at the same time." Kokura obeyed. After a few minutes of this, nearly all of the chains were gone from the beast, his spirits lifting as his freedom came closer and closer with every moment. Age old skin warped and twisted by cruel spikes fell away as he was free once more.  
As he felt them loosen more and more, eventually he felt he could break the remaining ones.  
"Halt, mortal." He commanded, stopping Kokura in her began to twitch, as millenniums of pent-up energy churned within him. With a great roar, he suddenly lunged his body forward, the great form bursting forth. Chains sprung from the wall, tearing the rock with them as rubble and stone was torn from it's anchor and thrown around the room.

The great reptile tentatively stretched one wing out, then the other, then each limb in turn until he was pleased. "Excellent work mortal, now come here." He commanded. Kokura began to walk forward but suddenly stopped.  
"Hey... what have you-" She began, but Kruziknahlotah lunged his head forward, cutting her off as he crunched down on her body, shaking her lifeless form around like a ragdoll. With relish he swallowed his prize, taking care to savor it.  
 _Tastes like freedom_ , he mused to himself, before turning his gaze skywards.

"Fus... RO DAH!" He shouted, voice springing forth to push the rocks covering the cave aside and widening the crack to accommodate him. With one last glance at his prison, now reduced to rubble, he drew his wings skyward, beginning to claw his way out of the pit.  
In just a few holds, he managed to pull his way out of the hole, bursting forth into the blinding twilight. He shielded his eyes from the sun with a leathery wing for a moment, but soon was gazing out at the landscape of Skyrim, the rolling plains of Whiterun stretching on as far as the eye could see, the forest leading down to them from the hillside on which he now perched. A great feeling of joy welled up inside him, and summoning ancient anger he had held for many years,  
from his throat burst a mighty roar.


End file.
